If there’s one thing media outlets love reporting on today, it’s artificial intelligence. Activities ranging from defeating chess masters to driving cars without human input are hailed as the next frontier of technology, or the downfall of humanity, depending on who you ask.

All the media bluster about the innovative things that AI can do ignores one key element for enterprise clients: customer communication. Our virtual assistant customer service solution learns how to talk to customers and solve their problems while also taking into account the context of each interaction.

The lost art of AI conversation

Artificial intelligence from companies like Google and IBM has made headlines for doing things like painting, researching diseases and analyzing the work of famous artists and athletes. These are all noble pursuits that add value to our world in their own ways, but they aren’t contributing to business goals.

To do that, you must consider the experience of your customers. Many enterprises looking to implement virtual assistant solutions for customer service fail to understand the most important element of successful customer support.

The content transfer misconception

Imagine training a new customer support agent recently hired at your company. Would you just hand them a thick company knowledge database with thousands of articles and tell them to learn how to transfer this information to customers?

Of course not. You would train the agent on the different channels your customers use, how to interact with customers at different stages, and how to deal with some of the most common problems. You would also teach them how to stay consistent with your company’s voice, to ensure that customer experiences are both helpful and memorable. The actual support data is just one part of the broader picture of customer service.

The same idea holds true for an AI-based virtual agent. Our virtual assistant doesn’t just take content from your company’s existing knowledgebase and transfer it to customers. It also considers how your customers interact: what mood they are in, which platforms they use to seek help, what type of issues they’ve had in the past, how agents have handled those issues, and so on.

Don’t let AI hype influence your customer experience

Sophisticated artificial intelligence is important, but for effective customer service, it must do more than just receive an input and output a certain answer. The answer to a customer’s inquiry is the foundation upon which V-Person creates a conversational experience that is also influenced by the nature of the inquiry, the customer’s status, and the voice of your brand.